AIBU to think this lady was nuts? Share your WTF interactions with strangers here

[BarbaraVineFan]

In the park with 4 year old DD today and she became fascinated with a ladybird which she found near the path. We were standing by the side of the path as DD let the ladybird crawl over her arms and hands. A lady went past with a little kid of a similar age and was looking over, so I said 'we've got a ladybird!' (Not sure why really but I felt the need to explain.) Upon which this woman sort of sniggered and went 'ah..,Chlamydia!' And then just...went on her way.

Having googled, I see that apparently ladybirds carry all sorts of STIs, which they transmit to other ladybirds and not humans. So I guess that's what she meant. But at the time I was like 'What the actual fuck?' 😂 Who even says that to a stranger?!

Does anyone have any similar stories of batshit interactions with strangers to share?

I'd have loved that! I would say, ooOOOoo really!? please share!

I worked in a travel agency and this client tried to speak to me in a very thick British accent which I just could not understand. I kept asking him: Sorry, could you say that again. He asked me if I was stupid. I couldn't say it is the way you speak. I just don't understand your dialect.

Ugh this has happened to me so many times, it’s horrible, I’m a couple of stone overweight but, it’s just the way my weight sits on my stomach. I’ve had people offer me their seat on the tube before, it’s mortifying!

I was at a wedding and chatting to a friend’s new girlfriend and she started asking me about my plans for when my baby is due, I was like errr, there is no baby!

Then a neighbour caught me to ask a question about some plants whilst I carrying shopping into my house and said “Ah, I can see you’re busy with a little one on the way, I’ll come back another time”. Again, not pregnant. Both those instances were just so embarrassing.

I struggle to lose weight as it is, hard as I try, now I’ve just resorted to making people as uncomfortable as they’ve made me, I just look them dead in the eye and say “I’m not pregnant, I’m just fat, thanks for noticing”

Oh well yeah that’s interesting she didn’t understand your husband when his accent is more similar to hers! 😆

I do sometimes have difficulty with some British accents unfortunately

Accents can make a difference to be fair! I understand my mums native language, although I can’t speak it very well. When I’m over in that country and certain cousins with a different accent speak the same language I don’t understand a word so they need to switch to English for me 😂 but I understand it perfectly when my aunties and uncles speak it.

I’m Scottish but have travelled so much including attending an English uni when I was younger, that I am used to slowing down my accent so that most people (who understand English ) can still understand me. But if I have a long chat with another Scottish person my accent reverts back to being really strong for a while.

I couldn’t understand well enough to carry on a conversation, so I had to awkwardly leave. Maybe it was Newcastle?

If it was Newcastle I wouldn’t be surprised - that’s the “Jordie” accent I was referring to in my previous post. People from Newcastle are known as “Jordies”.

I had a man, about 40 years old, randomly and aggressively accuse me of insulting him in the street, when I'd made a totally innocuous remark to my husband who was with me, something about the weather, that (however often I replayed it in my head) sounded absolutely nothing like what he'd accused me of saying.

Even more bizarrely, the insult he'd accused me of very obviously didn't apply to him - think calling him a 'fatty' when he was a normal size (I won't repeat what he actually accused me of saying because it was a highly offensive and discriminatory word).

I was blindsided and just kept repeating what I'd actually said (the remark sounding more and more banal each time) and eventually he told me to fuck off and walked away.

I still can't make any sense of it. I'm in my 50s and DH (slightly built) in his 60s, so not the sort of people you'd expect a younger bloke to pick a fight with to prove he was hard or whatever. He didn't show obvious signs of being drunk or unwell. I was pretty shaken and it's put me off going back to the place where it happened.

I was offered a seat on the tube and gladly took it. It was only a few hours later it occurred to me he possibly offered it to me because he thought I was pregnant.

I don’t know why but I just thought he was being chivalrous and I happily sat down 😂 the funny thing is he had something to his friends a few minutes earlier and I thought they had all looked at me and said something (all in their own language) .

I now think they were trying to figure out if I was fat or pregnant 😆

I'd have to ask, "what type of fish", because if it's a piranhas one of those deep sea ugly toothy fuckers, I'd say tail myself. There's also spines to consider with the head of some. Hard to get back out.

What a question though. It's like asking, "if you had to eatva turd, would you fry it or bake it". The real answer is, "fuck off, you psycho".

I used to work as a cleaner in a private hospital when I was at uni.
A patient once told me that I 'should make more of myself' and that I would be able to 'marry up if I just wore more make up, pushed up my boobs, wore a short skirt etc'
the irony was that she had just had a nose job and full face lift and had two blood drains either side of her face, and a horrible puffy nose and face. The nurse had even pre warned me that I might be shocked going in and made sure I wasn't sqeamish!!
I really struggled not to laugh

18 years old, me and my friend were in town -mid afternoon- when a bloke ran over and flashed us his rather tragic looking penis. We looked at eachother and said "ughhh what's that?!" So he called us "fucking lesbians" and walked off.

When eldest was a baby me and a friend were having breakfast in a cafe with a child each so using two high chairs. A woman came in with her baby just after we were served our food, noticed there were no other high chairs so came over and asked us if we could give her one of ours 😳 we said no we're obviously using them... she tutted, rolled her eyes and walked off!!! Bizarre!

I rode to the supermarket a few months ago, was just locking up my bike on one of the hoops provided (the last one left free of the group directly outside the door) when a guy pulls up about 30 seconds after me and tells me, "Sorry, that's my spot".

"No," I said, "they're for everyone."

He glares at me for a moment before saying, "Fine, have it your own way."

Goes to park his bike on one of the other hoops about 10 metres further away. I did have it my way!

Ha ha, 😂 it's certainly an ice-breaker! So what happened later on while you were working with her?

My husband and I went for a picnic on Hampstead Heath many many years ago and a random dog came rushing over and stole a sandwich from our picnic rug, and ran off. Years later we were on a picnic in Greenwich Park with friends when another random dog ran over and stole a sandwich, at the exact moment we were telling the story.

I was walking along with small DD running ahead near my house. DD tripped and fell and a woman walking past said 'I could see that was going to happen' and walked on. To be fair to her I think it was a case of speak first think later but I was frazzled and ended up saying 'Thanks for the help' as she walked away. Her shoulders went up as though I'd hurt her, which made me feel bad. I hope it taught her to just say nothing in similar situations.

Great thread!

I went to take some instructions from a client at court once. He came in, sat down, then told me he could only stay for 5 minutes because he was radioactive and I wasn't safe.

Another client told me he wasn't said client, he was an alien using his body.

Another told me he had a stainless steel skeleton.

The Herbs! That's so delightful, I would have been smiling all week.

Haha I love your reaction to that nasty bloke!

The one time I got flashed is the ONE TIME I actually had a good response in the moment! I was walking home on a quiet evening when I passed a young man who asked me what street we were on. He was holding his shirt kind of oddly but I didn't look down, just told him the street name and moved on.

Once I'd moved past him he called out "What do you think?" and I realized he was flashing me.

I said, "I think you need to keep working on your six-pack," and turned around and walked off with zero other reaction. And then later when everything had sunk in I was dead proud of myself for coming up with that reply because usually I only figure out good comebacks after a night's sleep!!

Oh, accents - or rather lack of them.

Years ago ExDH and I buddied up with a single Mum friend for a Centr Parcs holiday in the Netherlands because of some discount deal.

On one of the days her two kids wanted to do climbing, and my DS and ExDH decided to do something else and have "quality" bonding time, so I tagged along with friend to wait for her kids.

We got chatting to a young male instructor who was extremely well travelled, and had a reasonably neutral accent. He looked Scandinavian, so I did the stupid obvious thing of asking where he was from originally, as his English was very good, and then wished the ground could have swallowed me up when he grinned and said "Aberdeen". Fortunately the mortification was all mine and he was absolutely lovely about it. Pretzels. I too have pretzel moments.....

They don't need to be fed, they're perfectly capable of finding their own food. And wouldn't you rather let them do that, than feed them stuff that will make their health suffer (nalnutrition, stunted growth, underveloped wings)? If you have to feed them, use sweetcorn or porridge oats instead.

Thought of another one.

When DD was born we went out to buy an outfit for a newborn photoshoot week booked, the photoshoot was when she was 10 days old so I must have been about a week post birth at the time.

I found this adorable newborn dress, it was glittery type material with a tutu but really soft and it was absoloutly tiny (as was my 5lb daughter) like a dolls dress.

I lined up in the queue to pay and the older lady in front of me chatting to the cashier (not even buying anything just stood making small talk), turned and looked at the dress, looked at me and said 'I wouldn't bother love, that wont even fit on one of your legs' then burst out laughing.

Neither me nor the cashier joined in her laughing and just looked at each other confused, then she looked embarrassed and scurried off.

I was at a Tescos petrol station and was doing pay at pump. So credit card in, payment accepted and started filling up.

Then a woman pulled up as closely to the back of my car as she could got out and picked up the diesel pump from mine and started to drag it to her car. I was a bit stunned but asked her what she was doing. She replied ‘filling up’ and I said not on my credit card and I don’t think two of us can use it at the same time.

She just looked at me like I was being a massive bitch and put it back, then drive off. It was one of those utterly bizarre moments you wonder if you were in the wrong she did it with such confidence.

Sitting in a bar in Cape Town reading a book on Africa - The State of Africa by Martin Meredith (great read!) - and a woman runs up and tells me off for reading a book about Africa in Africa. Called it disrespectful!

We had a customer arrive very early for an appointment. My colleague pointed out that we were closed for lunch to which this woman screamed at her to fuck off. My colleague in a state let her in. The woman was in a motorised wheelchair. She then proceeded to go forwards and backwards constantly allowing the wheelchair to bleep continuously.
I put my headphones on and ignored her.
She then started making hand gestures whilst staring at me. Imagine if you were pointing your extended hand at somewhere and twisting your arm around, king of like trying to hypnotise someone. I then pulled up my computer screen to block her line if vision.
After seeing another colleague for her appointment, my colleague said she refused to sit a polite distance from her, instead moving her wheelchair as close as physically possible and staring at her the entire time.
She told my colleague she was a white witch and could perform satanic rituals.

I haven't managed to read all 487 posts - but most don't seem to be WTF moments - more funny or attempted h
funny or eye roll worthy